Almost There
by clouds-in-the-sky510
Summary: We all are wondering what is going to happen during the House of Hades. This is what I think may happen when Annabeth and Percy escape Tartaurus. Rated T because I'm paranoid.


**Ok! So I got a huge amount of views from my first story, Just Maybe..., so I wanted to write more! This time, though, I decided NOT to do a one-shot and to start with a longer story. As always, critique and comments are welcome, but please no flames. **

**Disclaimer: Sadly, I am not Rick Riordan, so, no, I do not own Percy Jackson nor any other characters associated with him.**

**Almost There**

_Chapter 1_

_Percy POV_

I couldn't believe it. I finally saw a light, (no, not THE light, just a light), and then my worst fear came true. Kronos , in all his shining glory, was standing right there.

See, Annabeth and I have been stuck in Tartarus for who-knows-how-long, fighting battle after battle. I looked terrible. My eye was bleeding, my left arm and wrist seemed to be broken, and I had bruises and scrapes all over. Annabeth was even worse. I looked down at the love of my life, and saw her once beautiful golden hair was nearly brown (the literal term for dirty-blond) and was plastered to her face with the sweat that has resulted from her fever. Her face was all bloody, but I wasn't too sure which cut it was from. Her twisted ankle had only gotten worse, I was afraid it was now broken, and she was leaning with nearly all her weight on me. Her left arm looked broken in two places, and she was even more bruised up then I was. I wanted to cry. My whole goal this entire time was to keep her safe and out of harm. Now, she looked hardly alive at all. I kissed her hair, wishing for it all to be over.

Annabeth smiled a painful smile, but it was wiped off her face when she saw who was standing on front of us. "Kronos." She croaked, "Percy, leave me, run! Please. We knew he'd be guarding the doors! Please just run!" She pleaded with me, tears streaming down her cheeks. Kronos laughed, the sound like nails on a blackboard.

"You heard the girl, Perseus!" I cringed at my full name, "Leave her. I have a feeling you are looking for these…." Kronos moved to the side to reveal a pair of double doors. From the other side I could see natural sunlight streaming through. Something I hadn't seen for a while. I heard the other seven demigods of the prophecy and Nico, screaming for us. I looked down at Annabeth. Her gray eyes showed nothing but fear when she said, "Leave me…. Please. All I want is for you to survive. I love you Perseus, just leave me."

I looked at her in shock, and said with all the love in the world, "Never. You're never getting away from me again, Wise Girl. Remember?" Then I looked back up at Kronos, and at that moment, a bolt of lightning hit him square in the chest (courtesy of Jason), sending him flying back a hundred yards behind us. I took this as a chance to run. I threw Annabeth over my shoulders and did something I never did: I ran away from a fight. I sprinted faster than I ever had in my whole life. As I burst through into the light, I saw the shocked and frightened faces of all my friends.

_Piper's POV_

I couldn't believe it. We were finally at the doors. There was only one minor problem: The king of the titans was blocking the door. We could hear Percy and Annabeth on the other side. No one knew what to do. The only demigod to ever beat this titan was presently blocked on the other side of him, probably all beat up. We were on our own. Hazel was silently crying, thinking that the odds were never in our favor.I looked at Jason, and he was thinking hard. Then he closed his eyes, put his hand up, and then BLAST!

We were momentarily blinded, and when I got my sight back, I saw two terribly looking figures, one slung over the arm of the other. Kronos was nowhere in sight, and I came to the conclusion Jason must have blasted him back with lightning. With a shock I realized the two figures were Percy and Annabeth. By looking at the faces of the other demigods, it looked like they realized this, too. Leo, Hazel, and even Jason ran and vomited on the side of the path. Frank and I came to our senses and we ran over to aid Annabeth and Percy, with Nico too stunned too move. Frank gently removed Annabeth off Percy's shoulder, and I guided Percy to sit up against a rock. I grabbed his wrist, but when he cried out in pain, I grabbed his waist, hoping Annabeth would forgive me, given the circumstances. Frank propped up Annabeth next to him, and the sight of them, all rugged and dirty, made me also want to give up my lunch. In some places, they had cuts so deep I could see the bone, and Annabeth's face was completely covered with fresh and dry blood. Then a huge roar jolted me back to reality.

Kronos stood at the doorway again, and, man, did he look repulsive. Even though Jason looked exhausted, he managed to throw one last lightning bolt at Kronos, and then collapsed. I started to call out to him, but soon realized we had a slightly bigger problem on our hands.

"The doors!" screamed Nico, "We have to close them from both sides!" Instinctively, Percy stood up, leaning heavily on Frank. "Me," he said "I-I'll go."

_Annabeth POV_

No no no no no no no! Percy was NOT sacrificing himself! No! We came so far. I didn't want anyone else to sacrifice themselves either; we've been through so much together, but not Percy. Please not Percy. "NO!" I yelled, my voice taking on a shrill edge to it, "Percy no I wont let you!"

I got up, ignoring the pain in my ankle, and grabbed onto him. "Annabeth stop," he said, "you'll just hurt yourself even more. Please just let go…." I saw a depressed pleading in his eyes, the eyes that could usually persuade me to do whatever he wanted. I knew we were running out of time, Kronos was not going to stay down forever, but I put my foot down. "No." I said simply, "No."

"Annabeth-" he started to say, but was interrupted by a leathery voice, one that I would always recognize. "No," it said, "The girl is right. I will go. I will return eventually."

I looked up to see the one and only "Mrs. Dodds!" Percy said, with a look of incredulous belief on his face, with maybe just a hint of relief. "But how-?"

Nico looked up and smiled. "Thank you, Alecto. My father will repay you."

Alecto smiled her devilish grin and said, "Oh he better, Ghost King." And with that, she flew through the doors and began closing them. Hazel, Frank, and Nico hurried to close the doors from the mortal side, and just before they closed, we heard Kronos' infuriated yell. I looked down at Percy and saw him passed out cold, and the last thing I remembered was Piper's face above me, her eyes sparkling in joy of seeing us alive.

**Ok! So that's the first chapter for you! If you like it please review and follow, as I'll be posting the next chapter HOPEFULLY tomarrow. Please review and tell me if you like the plot and if I should continue. Thank you! Oh and also, if anyone knows a good story with characters reading the Percy Jackson books that are not too OOC and that goes past the second book, please tell me in a review, because I love stories like that but can never find ones that are not OOC, have the gods reading them too, and go past the second book. Thanks! **

**Clouds-in-the-sky510**


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